Just switched to Windows 7. Why does everything seem huge?

I just switched from XP to Windows 7. Seems like all letters, items and signs are bigger. There's less space on my monitor.

I tried decreasing the DPI but it doesn't let me. Is there an other way?

My monitor is set to the right resolution. I've already made the size of the taskbar smaller.

 

Could you post a screenshot? I haven't noticed any difference aside from the fact that the taskbar may be a bit thicker in comparison to that of XP.

 

Look under preferences (right click desktop).. I forget where exactly, but it's an option to scale the icons/text.. it's probably set to Medium, which is OK for high resolutions, but should probably be set to Small if you're having this issue.

 

because Windows 7 is the bestest biggest OS ever!

Right click your desktop and choose view > classic icons

 

Thanks guys that helped.

Together with resizing the task bar things are almost normal now.

I still have the idea that fonts look bigger in Firefox. I'll check that.

 

taskbar with small icons is such a pain to use...anybody agree?

 

I found out another reason why it seemed so different in Firefox. I forgot to install adblock plus.

Dialogue boxes still seem large but I guess that's unchangeable.

Maybe the Aero interface is playing tricks with my mind.

 

It's probably just your eyes/mind playing tricks with you.

I could swear that the size of fonts/onscreen elements changes every time I upgrade graphics drivers, but more likely than not it's the 30s or so I spend at 800x600 or whatever after uninstalling the old ones.

 

well, compared to vista, the borders got a bit thicker, that is true. but it's only 1, 2 pixels max.

i thought, at least

 

I did notice the borders are a bit bigger yes.

I am coming from XP.

 

Did your hardware change with it? Are you using a different size or different res screen? Is your screen res set correctly?

 

Yes still the same screen, same res.

It's solved right now. The reason was: larger taskbar, larger icons, larger borders and forgot to install ABP.

 

If nobody posted the correct answer yet.

Right Click on your desktop select personalize
In the new window click display

You should now be looking at a setting with 3 settings small, medium, large.

Win 7 for me always defaults to medium and its 125% size for font and stuff, if your a Vista/XP user your going to want to use small for 100% size (aka normal)

 

Thanks Vicious but I had already set it to 100%.

 

Nope. It's how I've set mine. Large Icons look stupid, IMHO.

 

it depends on the res, the mouse speed, and the screen size, jeremysdad.. and your eyes and hand-control

on a netbook, i could consider the small icons. on fullhd res, i would hit the wrong taskbar buttons all the time, and i wouldn't even see very well which button is which.

so it's nice to have the option

 

yup, even at 100% which is by the way the dedault size, things just look bigger. looks goofy like a toy.

 

Ah someone else noticed it too.

I found out if I set Visual appearance to best performance I get the Windows Classic interface which gives me back all my desktop space.

It doesn't look as pretty though.

 

Heres how to fix. Place mouse cursor on empty section of desktop. Press CTRL (hold it down). Press your middle mouse button (scroll wheel). Holding the wheel down scroll it and you can make them bigger or smaller.

Now, if someone here can reduce the size of the bar on the bottom of the screen they get awarded free Christmas cookies. I tried it really quickly on that part but it didnt work. Perhaps you can figure it out.

W7 is too funky. I dont like the glow effect when you place mouse cursor over items. Seems like some cheesy toy.

 

Wow, am I the only one that likes the way Win7 looks?

 

If it's an older PC (which it sounds like it is if you were running XP) Win7 isn't the greatest at installing the proper video drivers for older computers.

I'd manually look for the latest video drivers for your particular computer, even if they aren't advertised as "7 compatible."

 

Well, it isn't the greatest at installing the proper video drivers for new computers either, IMO.

My HP laptop is only 1 year old and came with Vista, Windows 7 installed a generic VGA driver and let me find a compatable driver on my own. I have found that most times the proper video drivers need to be manually located.

 

I like Aero Basic better than Vista Basic, but not more than Luna. 75% of the time I've used 7 it's been with Aero Basic, and 90% of Vista time with Vista Basic, despite my DX10 video card, so I'm not an expert on Full Blown Effects mode.

I didn't have any real specific complaints with the defaults in Win7 except the grouping, double height, and lack of text on the taskbar, though, which I could quickly reset. I can see myself being slightly less satisfied with the defaults at a public computer than with XP's defaults for the taskbar, but the Start menu search might atone for that, as I don't know a public PC's Start menu like my own. Font I never noticed anything wonky about in 7. Icons are rather huge by default, but I have an iconless desktop anyway, so that's moot point for me.

For now I'm happily sporting an XP Classic custom-colored Christmas theme. Probably couldn't match the brightness of the colors in Vista/7 if I tried, and it's not actually that much of a color clash, as some combos definitely are. Maybe I'll post a snapshot in the desktop thread sometime.

 

no. but you know, here are mostly geeks. and they need to show how they can change the system just to show that they CAN. (and because it's better, and blabla and such )

i would never turn off aero anywhere, for all the usability AND technical reasons it got.

ever painted your desktop with an error message box you dragged around? or a window? or got the window clean white as it was hanging and you dragged another window on top of it?

all of this is not possible in aero. flickerings, windows-redraws, etc are a thing of the past.

and, the cpu has less work to do.

 

Do you know how they eliminated those problems in 7?

 

Sit farther away from the monitor and you will stop complaining about size. lol.

 

You could customize even more just like previous versions of Windows. Fonts and others.

Right Click on Desktop --> Personalize --> Window color (at the bottom of window) --> Advanced appearance settings...

Now you can set everything the way you want to as you may be more familiar with this menu. It'll customize the current theme which can be saved. If you click on a diff. theme you'll have to start all over again.